ایملی لیس

Nope. It's not the same. There's a huge difference between Autistic masking and neurotypical masking. Almost everyone masks to some extent. For example, a neurotypical person may adapt their behaviour, body language, and communication style in certain situations and contexts e.g. in the workplace whereby they will act more polite, 'professional' and more sociable. However, this is not costly to their mental, emotional, physical, and sensory health. Autistic people mask as a survival strategy in order to avoid being ostracised for coming across as "weird, odd", or being made fun of due to years of social exclusion. Autistic masking involves scrutinising every interaction and being hyper aware of every facial expression or gesture. Neurotypicals (generally) do not experience this. Masking comes at a huge cost due to the labour that goes into it.